Golf driving station and wheeled putting green target



Jan. 25, 1966 w, COLLINS 3,231,280

GOLF DRIVING STATION AND WHEELED PUTTING GREEN TARGET Filed 001:. 19,1962 2 Sheets-Sheet l h a s o J FIG. I.

IN VE NT OR ATTO Jan. 25, 1966 LU 3,231,280

60w DRIVING STATION AND WHEELED PUTTING GREEN TARGET Filed Oct. 19, 19622 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR WILLlAM COLLINS :AUTTORNEY United StatesPatent 3,231,289 GOLF DRIVING TATION AND WHEELED PUTTING GREEN TARGETWilliam Qoliins, Gloucester Township, Ontario, Canada (Howard St.,Winchester, Ontario, (fanada) Filed Oct. 19, 1962, Ser. No. 231,806 1Claim. (Cl. 273-181) This invention relates to improvements in a golfpractice device and appertains particularly to one designed for thepractice of iron shots.

The game of golf may be considered as dividing into three basic partsnamely the drive from the tee, iron approach shots and putting on thegreen. Various and generally satisfactory mediums are widely availablenow for the practice of driving and putting and many golf coursesprovide such facilities but I feel that the need for a device for thepractice of the many different iron shots has been thus far unsatisfied.

Of all the clubs in the bag the irons may be classified as the precisionclubs and covering as they do the wide range from say the No. 9 to theNo. 2, so different in performance one from the other, their proper andexpert individual use is essential to developing a good game.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide adevice for practicing the various iron shots by the use of a targetsimulating a green that can be readily moved in or out to the desireddistance from a tee or driving station for practicing approaches fromvarying distances with the appropriate irons.

A further object of the invention is to provide a golf practice deviceconsisting of a target, closely simulating a green, movable at will bythe user through the operation of a conveniently located power controlunit.

A further object of the invention is to provide a golf practice deviceemploying a target simulating a green that is movable by a suitablepower-operated mechanism, under the control of the golfer, to thedesired distance from the driving position, together with meansindicating the yardage distance to the target from the tee or drivingposition.

A still further object of the invention is the provision of a golfpractice device in which the target moving mechanism may be actuated bya control unit embodying a power source, a three-way switch thereforhaving flN, OFF and GUT positions and a clearly visible yardageindicator, all conveniently located relative to the tee or drivingposition,

To the accomplishment of these and related objects as shall becomeapparent as the description proceeds, the invention resides in theconstruction, combination and arrangement of parts as shall behereinafter more fully described, illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings, and pointed out in the claim thereunto appended.

The invention will be best understood and can be more clearly describedwhen reference is had to the drawings forming a part of this disclosurewherein like characters indicate like parts throughout the severalviews.

lnthe drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevation of my golf practice device showing themovable target mechanism for moving the same toward or away from thetee;

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged fragmentary plan view of the target with partsremoved and also showing the movement-controlling device partly insection;

FIGURE 3 is a corresponding enlarged fragmentary side elevation withparts broken away and parts shown in section;

FIGURES 4 and 5 are side elevation and plan view respectively of thetarget;

FIGURE 6 is an enlarged transverse section of the 3,231,280 PatentedJan. 25, 1966 rim of the target or green taken on the line 66 of FIGURE5; and

FIGURES 7, 8 and 9 are enlarged transverse sections on the lines 7-7,8-8 and 9-9 respectively of FIG- URE 5.

Because of the need of most golfers to improve their iron shots, I havecarefully considered the problems of providing the kind practicerequired, having particular regard to the variety of play involving thewhole set of irons. The driver or Wood club is used from almost everytee and the putter is likewise employed on every green so that a playerhas continuous practice with each of these clubs and competence in theiruse is more quickly acquired. Furthermore, the manner of using each isnot greatly varied, that is, the stance and swing and the object ofdriving straight down an open fairway with the wood is fairly constantand so too is the putting to the cup at relatively short distances butwith the irons, one may play several holes or a whole game without onceusing some of the clubs and great importance lies both in straightshots, directionwise, and also in accurately judging the distance to thegreen and imparting the proper swing with just the right amount of forceto get the proper pitch and distance.

For these reasons I concluded that it was necessary to provide theplayer with a practice device With a target closely simulating a greenand also indicating the distance from the driving position thereto sothat he may learn to accurately estimate the distance he is from thegreen in regular play, get to know the length of drive he gets from thevarious irons and so ascertain which club he requires to achieve thatdistance.

Referring to the drawings, my golf practice device will be seen toconsist of a movable target 1 simulating a golf green which isoperatively connected by a clothes line type cable 2 to a reversiblepower unit 3 by means of which the target is reciproca ble and may bemoved toward or away from the tee or driving station convenientlypositioned adjacent the power unit, with which latter is associated ayardage distance indicator 4. The target or green 1 is shown ascomprising a skeleton frame 5 fabricated from tubular material such asan extruded alloy of aluminum or other suitable light metal alloysupported by a plurality of ground wheels 6.

The ground wheels or casters 6 are carried by vertically disposedspindles 7, the lower ends of which are flattened and formed withhorizontally disposed stub axles 8 on which the ground wheels 6 arejournalled. Each spindle 7 is formed adjacent its lower flattened endwith an enlargement 9 which constitutes an abutment shoulder.

The skeleton frame 5 includes an undercarriage that is substantiallysquare being formed of four tubular side members It), each of whichconnects at its ends with vertically disposed sleeves 11 one of which ismounted on each of the vertically disposed spindles 7.

The square skeleton frame so formed by the side members It) is renderedfirm and stable by tubular diagonals 12 and 13 of suitable material, thediagonal 12 being formed with a central tubular coupling or connector 14through which the diagonal 13 passes.

The ends of the diagonals are formed with vertically disposed sleeves 15which engage the spindles '7 carrying the corner or ground Wheels 6, andat the intersection of the diagonals 12 and 13 a triangular plate 16 isprovided which may be secured to the diagonals as by pins or othersuitable means 17.

The triangular plate 16 has a square opening 18 to accommodate thetubular coupling 14, and the cup in the form of an upwardly disposedsocket 19 is mounted on 3 the plate to carry the usual pin or staff 26of the target flag 21.

The enlargement 9 on each side wheel spindle 7 carries an upwardly andangularly disposed strut 22, and the sleeves 23 thereabove also carryupwardly disposed struts 24, the struts 22 and 24 flaring upwardly withtheir upper ends connected to the annular rim 25 of the target or green1.

The rim may be of tubular metal or other suitable material and ofelliptical, circular or other plane geometric shape as found expedient,lying preferbaly in an angularly disposed plane sloping rearwardly andupwardly from the front of the rear of the green or target, and thefront of the rim may rest on or be otherwise supported by the frontground wheel spindle 7, since the square under-carrige as will be seenin FIGURE 4, has one wheel at the front, one at the back and one on eachside. The are of the rear portion of the rim 25 is supported by upwardlyflaring struts 26 and 27 supported by a sleeve 28 on the spindle 7 ofthe rear ground wheel and another rearwardly inclined strut 29 risingfrom the spindle enlargement 9 of the same rear wheel. It will thus beapparent that the annular rim 25 of the target or green is rigid andstable.

The surface 30 of the target or green may be fabricated from a web ofplastic screen material formed of fibre glass, nylon or other suitablesubstance, and as shown in FIGURES 4 and 5, the peripheral or marginalportion of the web is provided with an embracing sleeve 31 whichunderlies the lower inner periphery of the metal rim 25, and a cord 32is laced through the sleeve and tightly retains the web in position onthe rim. This cord may be of resilient material and it may be endless,as may be found expedient in fabricating the target or green.

The target moving unit 3 is enclosed in a housing 33 suitably anchoredand located conveniently adjacent to the tee or driving station. Thepower unit performs two functions in that it primarily moves the targettoward or away from the tee to position the same at the desired distanceand it also visually indicates the yardage distance from the tee to thetarget. The power unit 3 comprises a conventional prime mover such as areversible electric motor 34 connected with a suitable source ofelectric energy, and a three-way switch 35 is provided having IN, OFFand OUT positions to bring the power unit into operation to move thetarget out or to shut the motor off as desired.

The shaft 36 of the motor 34 is operatively connected in a reduction box37 to a transverse shaft 98 off which a measuring device cable 39 runsto the yardage distance indicator 4 that clearly displays the actualdistance in yards from the tee to the target. On one end of the shaft 38a relatively large flange drive pulley 41) is mounted, around which theflexible haulage cable 2 is wound at least one complete coil.

This haulage cable passes under and around a guide pulley 42 suitablymounted in the housing 33, and thence one end 43 of this cable isconnected to the front of the wheel carried target, as for instance tothe spindle carrying the front ground wheel 6.

The other end of the haulage cable 2 passes under the guide pulley 44mounted on the bottom of the housing 2J3, out through an opening 45 inthe front of the housmg, around a guide pulley 46 which is mounted on aground anchor 47 located beyond the farthest distance it is desired toset the target and the second end 48 of the haulage cable is thenattached to the wheeled frame of the target, as to the rear wheelsupport 6 whereby the target or green may be moved toward or away fromthe tee as desired, by this haulage cable, in the same manner as :aclothes line is run in or out.

In using this practice device, the player simply actuates the electricswitch 35 to move the target or green into position at the desireddistance from the tee, and

then shuts off the power so that the target or green is static. Theplayer then proceeds to practice with the appropriate iron carefullyobserving the flight of the balls, whether they pitch on to the targetor green with the proper loft, or whether the balls miss the target bybeing hooked or sliced or being over-driven or falling short, and he canthen analyse the nature of his faults and practice to overcome them.

The player can thus assess his skill with the particular iron that he isusing at that distance of flight, so he so practices, he also learns toassess his distance from the green and to gain assurance that he notonly knows how to use a particular iron for a specified distance, but issatisfied that he has mastered that shot and could play it from .anormal lie on the fairway that distance from the green. Then he maychange the location of the target to increase or decrease its distancefrom the tee in order to practice with another iron and familiarizehimself with recognizing and assessing another yardage distance.

This type of practice will impress on the players mind the need toaccurately assess the distance his lie from the green and enable him tochoose the club which may be most effectively used.

When playing golf the player usually has the fairway markings and alsothe score card to guide him as to his length of drive, and as to theremaining distance to the green, thus he should be able to select theproper iron for each approach shot.

While I have shown a wheel mounted target and a motor operated, clothesline type of mechanism for moving it along the ground, it might be founddesirable in some cases to run it on a track, to mount the track orclothes line cable in a trench, to suspend the target from an overheadcable or to operate a self-propelled target by any suitable remotecontrol.

From the foregoing description taken in connection with the accompanyingdrawings, it will be manifest that a golf practice device is providedthat will fulfill all the necessary requirements of such a device, butas many changes could be made in the above description and manyapparently widely diff rent embodiments of the invention may beconstructed within the scope of the appended claims, without departingfrom the spirit or scope thereof, it is intended that all matterscontained in the said accompanying specification and drawings shall beinterpreted as illustrative and not in a limitative or restrictivesense.

What is claimed as new is:

In a golf practice device, the combination with a driving station of atarget closely simulating a green movable toward or away from saiddriving station, said target comprising a wheeled frame of rectangularform with a caster wheel at each corner thereof and so arranged that onewheel is at the front of the target, one at the rear and one at eachside thereof; a pair of reinforcing braces extending diagonally acrossthe frame and intersecting at the center thereof; a plate secured onsaid braces where they intersect; a socket mounted on said plate with atarget flag pin rising therefrom; spindles for said caster wheels;struts rising angularly from the spindles of said caster wheels; anannular rim carried by said struts and disposed in an angular plane; anet of substantial area supported by said rim; and user actuated meansfor moving the target toward and away from the driving station.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,011,146 8/1935Evans 273176 2,586,958 2/1952 Keller 273-l05.6 2,805,070 9/1957 V/aters273-181 2,936,179 5/1960 Thurston 273- X 3,104,879 9/1963 Jetton 273-18lX DELBERT B. LOWE, Primary Examiner.

